AT&T — one of the world’s largest telecom companies — has made an offer to acquire DirecTV at a value of $50 billion. DirecTV stock was trading at $86.18 on the Nasdaq and AT&T offered the DirecTV board a premium at $90 a share, valuing the company at $50 billion. DirecTV has the largest customer base in America, ahead of DishTV and Time Warner Cable.

So far, Verizon is the only other telecom provider in America offering bundled Cable TV, Internet and voice connections, if the AT&T deal goes through American regulatory bodies, the strategic master stroke by AT&T will give it a competitive advantage over other cable and telecom companies.